Unfamiliar Ageing

Sunset Over Mulholland Drive (2019), a documentary by Uli Gaulke and Agnes Lisa Wegner, portrays the lives of retired film-industry professionals residing at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Los Angeles. This unique community, part of the Motion Picture & Television Fund, supports aging Hollywood members by combining healthcare and creative infrastructure with residential living.

Through vivid visuals, group discussions, and personal interviews, the film explores how aging artists sustain their creative identities and social bonds through shared experience, mutual support, and access to purpose-built spaces.

Rather than relying on traditional family structures or isolated retirement homes, residents benefit from a model of collective living that fosters connection and continued artistic practice. This integration of care and creativity presents a compelling alternative approach to aging.

Such models, however, remain rare. In Zürich, despite all cultural fundings, aging artists still face challenges; financial insecurity, limited access to suitable creative spaces, and urban environments ill-suited to reduced mobility. These issues complicate not just physical movement, but also the continuation of artistic work and social engagement. In particular, the Industriequartier already hosts a diversity of creative infrastructures and community spaces, yet few are designed with aging practitioners in mind. Retirement, for many artists, is not a clear break but an evolution of their relationship with work, identity, and space.

This prompts a critical reflection: how might a new architectural intervention in the Industriequartier, on the site of the existing parking structure, respond to these realities? The project proposes a hybrid living-working environment that supports aging creative professionals.

Working with plaster to develop a flexible partition wall, a scenographic element with a front and a back, this system allows each resident to choose their own layout, mixing or separating creative and living spaces. The housing is therefore designed to accommodate various mobility and creative needs by adapting over time to changing circumstances.

The transformation of the parking structure presents several challenges, such as low ceilings, split levels, and a lack of natural light in the center.

To address these issues, the central slabs are cut away and replaced with a platform lift, allowing residents to easily transport materials and objects into their spaces, while also providing a limitless vertical space for working on large-scale projects. The back of the partition wall, which explores the potential of darker, more enclosed spaces, can be used for storage, sleeping areas, or darkrooms, depending on specific creative needs.

By integrating accessible housing with both shared and private studios, flexible living spaces, and mobility-conscious design, the aim is to create a space where artistic work and community life continue beyond conventional retirement, drawing inspiration from the case study while responding to the specific social, spatial, and cultural conditions of Zürich.

Project by: Luce Salvadé

Teaching team: Anna Puigjaner, Dafni Retzepi, Ethel Baraona Pohl, Pol Esteve Castelló, Lisa Maillard, He Shen, He Yufei. In collaboration with BUK

Master Thesis: Spring 2025